Armitage III

Ross Sylibus is a cop who has recently been reassigned to Mars. On his way over, he is witness to the murder of a famous celebrity, and the revelation that she is an advanced form of robot referred to as a “Third”, so sophisticated that it can pass as being human. Partnered up with the lovely Naomi Armitage, Ross must now try and find out just who these robots are, and why someone wants them all dead.

I’ve seen many robot girl anime before, but none of them were nearly as interesting as Armitage III. The entire concept of this series is really quite interesting and lends itself to create a rather unique anime.

The single most important factor to any anime probably is the plot, and Armitage III started out with a very unique and interesting plot. In fact, I would go so far as to say it was excellent, right up until the last 20 or so minutes. From there everything just went downhill. All realism and credibility felt lost. The characters, which had up until this point been portrayed in rather realistic manners; were now suddenly nothing more then interesting character designs with nothing to them. It felt as though there had been an excellent build up throughout the show and then the writer realized, “oh crap! I need to end this!” There have been some really forced endings, like that of Whisper of the Heart or Vision of Escaflowne, but Armitage III has beyond any reasonable doubt the most forced ending out there.

That being said, Armitage III still has its good sides, especially if you just stop half way through the last episode and create your own ending in your mind. Armitage III is spectacularly done on the visual level. The animation is incredibly fluid and the different character designs quite unique. Granted, Armitage III does have a few spots where the animation doesn’t seem quite as good as other spots, but on the wholeArmitage III is well animated.

The seiyuu work on the other hand is a whole other story. Depending upon who you ask or which character you focus on you will get mixed answers. For the most part people will agree that Armitage is over acted and Ross is just bland. The overacting by Armitage’s seiyuu really becomes prominent in the end and can really start to be grating, like fingernails on a blackboard.

Overall Armitage III is not a bad anime. However the poor execution of just about everything at the end tends to turn people off. However I would suggest sticking with Armitage III, because the sequel,Armitage III: Dual Matrix, is definitely worth watching.